On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    his will he bequeathed to his favourite institution the sum of one hundred pounds . The Society , as has been justly remarked , will be a standing monument of what may be accomplished by individual persevering exertrons in the cause of humanity ; and ^ vill transmit the names of Hawes and

    Cogan to posterity as benefactors to the human race . * In 1780 , Dr . Cogan again retired to Holland , where he continued , enjoying himself in literary and philosophical pursuits , and contributing to the enjoyment of others by his amiable

    manners and pleasant and instructive discourse , until the storm of the French Revolution drove him back , for shelter , to England . During this last residence on the Continent , he had visited Germany , and on his return to

    this country he collected and revised the notes which he made ori his tour , and published them in two Volumes 8 vo ., under the title of " The Rhine . " There are few more interesting books of travels than this . The charm of the

    work is , that the reader feels himself to be a companion of the author ' s , and enters into his whole character ; and Dr . Cogan ' s was a character that could not be known without being highly esteemed .

    On his final settlement in England * Dr . Cogan made Bath his first residence . Here he indulged his taste for agriculture . He was an active member of the West-of-En gland Agricultural Society , and followed experimental farming with so much

    success on some land which he occupied in the neighbourhood of Bath , that he obtained several of the Society ' s premiums . He continued this pursuit in his subsequent removals to Clapton and Woodford , and at the time of hts decease held a small farm in the

    vicinity of Southampton , to which he used to retire occasionally from his lodgings in London . His inclination towards agriculture was not prompted by the hope of gain ; it was matter of taste ; perhaps it was something higher , for he had ^ so active a mind that he could not be content without some object before him , and his principles and feelings induced him to

    ? Annual Report of tbe Royal Humane Society , 1818 , p . 5 . " /

    Untitled Article

    ch oose such objects as were useful to mankind . Of farming , as a business , he used to say that "it is never profitable , except the farmer drive the plough , his wife be dairy-maid and the children scarecrows . "

    Whilst he lived at Bath , Dr . Cogan published , under the name of ** A Layman , * ' the well-known Letters to Mr . Wilberforce on Hereditary Depravity , in which he combats with complete success this fayourite tenet of the pious senator . This pamphlet haai

    passed through several editions and has , perhaps , contributed more than any work ever published to correct dark views of human nature , aud consequent despondency with regard to the plans-of Providence . It merits the praise bestowed by Johnson on Bur . net ' s Life of Rochester : ' * the critic

    may read it for its elegance , the philosopher for its arguments , and the saint for its piety . * During his residence at Bath , he published , also , first the Philosophical and then the Ethical Treatise on the

    Passions , which were followed at long intervals by three other volumes of moral and theological Disquisitions ; forming together the complete system of the author with regard to the character of the Creator , and the moral constitution , duties and expectations

    of man . In the philosophical part of this extended work the arrangement is clear , the definitions correct and the illustrations happy ; in the ethical it is proved that virtue and happiness are identical ; and in the theological the Jewish and Christian revelations are

    fully vindicated , and are shewn to be means by which the universal Father is educating his children for final happiness and glory . But excellent as these volumes are , they would probably have been more useful if they had been published as distinct works , and

    ? The writer once heard Dr . Cogsrn relate that a popular and eloquent Calvinistic minister , on being- asked his opinion of the Layman ' s Letters , made this declaration : — " I would not undertake to refute all the

    author ' s arguments , but I have this one answer to make to them all , God owns our way qf preaching * " Is not this equal to saying , that the preacher who has the largest auditory has the mrest evidence of being * in the right ?

    Untitled Article

    Memoir of the hieDr . Cogan . 8

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1819, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1768/page/3/